boiler
/ˈbɔɪlə
/noun
1A fuel-burning apparatus or container for heating water, in particular:
1.1A household device providing a hot-water supply or serving a central heating system.As part of last year's work the boiler and central heating system was upgraded with the bedrooms and function suites undergoing redecoration....
- Combination boilers provide instant central heating and hot water, but are best suited to properties with one bathroom.
- The rules apply to all gas appliances, including central heating boilers, water heaters, fires and cookers.
1.2A tank for generating steam under pressure in a steam engine.But the principle of generating steam in a boiler under pressure and using it to push pistons back and forth in two or more double-acting cylinders, is just the same....
- The Lord Stewart is listed as having two boilers and a three-cylinder steam engine.
- Stop the heat getting out of their steam engine boilers - and the cold getting in - by wrapping them in asbestos blankets.
1.3 dated A metal tub for washing or sterilizing clothes at a very high temperature.I rather thought sacrificing virgins to their gods had gone out with the clothes boiler, but sometimes I wasn't too sure....
- Our vacuum ironing tables, ironing boards, steam boilers and clothes presses can be used for commercial dry cleaning and clothes pressing.
2British informal A chicken suitable for cooking only by boiling.Cahaner produced his chicken by cross-breeding a boiler chicken with another breed that has a naturally bare neck....
- The fundamentally unhygienic conditions of intensive boiler chicken production have been described many times.
- He has crossbred a small, bare-skinned bird with a regular boiler chicken as part of a research project to develop succulent, low fat poultry that is environmentally friendly.
3British informal An unattractive or unpleasant woman.
